


Cultural Insensitivity

by lbk_princen



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Friends to Lovers, Fucking Machines, M/M, Species Swap, eventually sex, probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-23 22:30:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2558042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lbk_princen/pseuds/lbk_princen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the title is currently in the works. ergh. This was originally supposed to be just a oneshot sorta deal written for tumblr user deer-dearest, but after spending a whole night working on it, it would probably be better if I make it multichapter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Endless thanks go to tumblr user frostyspace for her drawing of Dave and Karkat doing the exploring thing! It's pictured here in the work, and it's great, I love it so much.

Things are dull. Life is boring, with not much happening on it's own, Dave and Karkat have to make their own fun on the meteor. Usually this includes bugging the shit out of each other and/or bugging the shit out of everybody else together. Over the course of a year they have grown close as friends, but there are still subjects they hesitate to broach with the other, still feelings and thoughts that go somewhat or completely unaired.

At some point, Karkat had suggested they map the entirety of the meteor.

"It was something that I had been interested in doing for a while, but because of all the shit going down, I couldn't leave my team alone. There were more important things to do, but..." Karkat had said, trailing off.

"But now there's absolutely fuck-all to do, important or otherwise," Dave had finished for him.

So Karkat had assigned Dave to be his "map monkey" and help him chart out all the rooms and passageways of the meteor.

Today they discover a new room. Walking through the barely lit hall, Karkat carrying a glowworm ("Dude why the fuck can't we just use flashlights? They're easier to hold and aren't as gross-looking" "Because, you inconsiderate asshole, those bright beams are fucking unnatural and hurt my eyes. Troll technology is superior. We're using the glowworm.") and Dave carrying their half-finished map. The glowworm casts a soft blue-white light across their faces and illuminates the metal hallway for a good seven feet before the shadows get too dark and crowd in. The sound of their footsteps echoes, audible even through Karkat's talk of movies and TV shows from Alternia.

"...I just don't think that Aishha should have had to apologise. It wasn't _her_ fault that Yector was intruding on her spade. She was a good kismesis! It was Dianlo who wasn't paying enough attention to the relationship."

"Yes Karkat, that's all extremely interesting. I am so interested right now. But Imma have to cut you off there, because we've reached where we left off." Dave waves the map in Karkat's face, making the troll glare and swipe at the blond half-heartedly.

The both stop and survey their surroundings in the dim light of the glowworm. There are three transportalizers to choose from, lined up in a row.

Dave and Karkat look at each other, then as Dave pulls his pen from behind his ear and draws the three little telepads he says, "Right, left, or centre?"

Karkat considers the options, and holds the glowworm up to cast it's light a little farther. After the transportalizers is just solid wall.

"Hm... Right," Karkat says after a moment. Dave tucks the pen back behind his ear over the arm of his shades and gestures to the telepad to the right.

"After you," Dave says graciously. Karkat flicks his forehead as he goes past.

However that probably hadn't been the best idea, because once Karkat - and by extension, the glowworm - had vanished, there was no light for Dave to see by. He grumbled and cursed under his breath, awkwardly toeing his was forward and to the right until he reached the transportalizer and felt the now familiar feeling of his molecules being torn apart and put back together in a timeless instant.

The room they were transportalized into was small and tall. It's square footage was the size of a bedroom, cramped and cluttered with machinery, but it had a high, arching roof. Dave bumped into Karkat upon materializing and stepping off the telepad, making the troll boy squawk and lose his footing.

Karkat trips over some loose wiring and drops the glowworm in order to catch himself on the edge of a piece of equipment, unwittingly pressing several buttons. The glowworm dims some after impact with the floor, giving life to the shadows of the machinery. Dave manages to keep his balance, and glances around the room curiously.

"Woah, dude. You okay?" Dave says when he sees Karkat go down. He moves forward to help, but in the dim lighting plus his shades navigating is hard. He actually steps on the glowworm by accident, making it let out a shrill squeak and go out entirely. Dave leaps forward with an undignified squeal at the sudden sound and darkness, crashing into Karkat and making them both go down - hard. Impact takes away his breath, and the wheeze from Karkat beneath him indicates that the troll suffers the same fate.

Lights flare up the sides of the machine and the two teens can only look around, dazed and breathless as the metal under them hums with warmth. The last thing they both feel is a spike of lightning hot pain up their spines; then nothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Karkat is the first to come to, his head spinning and his body smarting. There is a crushing weight atop him and his limbs feel like they have been drained of blood and cotton has been stuffed in his veins to replace it. He tries to groan, growl, to make a noise, but his throat feels strange. He tries to open his eyes, but each lid feels like lead and he can't do anything but lie there, dragging in breaths despite the weight on top of him. He can't think straight, can't remember what happened.

While they were unconscious, the glowworm had begun to emit a soft light again, and now it casts a dim glow over the lab and the two boys it holds. The panels on the machines are dark, eerily so, and no lights flash at all. Everything is still.

Then Dave stirs, twitching his limbs and feeling each muscle in his back and shoulders and legs convulse with pain. He makes a noise low in his throat - so low that Karkat can't hear it. He feels the vibration though, and finally manages to crack open an eye, only to make a high, startled noise. Dave grumbles again and manages to brace his arms on either side of Karkat, still not having opened his eyes. When he lifts his weight off of the other boy Karkat wheezes, his breath coming unnatural to him, coming deep and slow and not at all like how he's used to it being. Dave rolls off of him and he blinks his eyes in an alternating fashion. Slowly his body begins to wake up.

Dave is still prone, lying beside Karkat with his face pulled into a grimace of pain and his fingernails digging hard enough into his palms to draw blood. Karkat clenches his hand slowly, curling in his fingers only - claws gone. The familiar sharp prick of claws into his handmeat is gone, replaced by an alien dullness. He slides his sluggish tongue over his teeth; dull as well. It is then that he begins to panic, and struggles to sit up. His muscles scream protest, but he manages to pull himself to a sitting position. He tries to move his arm and his hand flops un-cooperatively into his lap. He stares.

His skin isn't grey, but a soft mocha brown, almost bronze-looking. His nails are pale and blunt; useless. He wrests control of his hand and reaches up, his hair is soft and curly and - his horns are gone. Panic fills him and he makes a frightened noise, a croak that sounds slightly like _"Dave."_

Dave stirs at the noise, and he croaks back, _"Karkat?"_ He pries open one eye to stare up into the dark. His whole body hurts, and it feels strange. He is dully aware of warmth on his hand from where his nails dig into his palm, but it doesn't concern him. His ears twitch- his ears twitch? His teeth sit uncomfortably in his mouth and when he parts his lips to try and speak he realizes why: they're all sharp points. For a split second he does nothing, then he too struggles to sit up. In the soft light of the glowworm, Dave stares down at his hands, grey skin covered in splotches of dark blood. A noise forces itself from Dave's throat, a high, panicked whine that was very inhuman-sounding. "Karkat?" Dave manages to say, his voice husky and unfamiliar. "What the hell happened?"

"I don't... Fuck. I don't know." Karkat's voice comes mangled and slurred, unused to the tongue in his mouth and the voice in his throat. He turns his head, squints at Dave, but he quickly realizes that human sight is complete shit. In the dark at least. Dave on the other hand, is realizing that he can see each frizzy strand of Karkat's hair in HD. Karkat turns away again and leans forward, his joints creaking with stiffness - how long have they been lying there like that anyway? He crawls forward, agonizingly slow, towards the glowworm. He fumbles to pick it up. Comparing troll hands to human hands, troll hands are thicker, broader, and sturdier. Trolls are denser, and moving in this body Karkat feels like he's made of twigs and feathers.

Karkat holds up the glowworm and his hand trembles as he looks at Dave. His shades are still in place but are awkward on his face, with his larger, denser cheekbones and large pointed ears. Dave has a pretty nice rack, too, large horns that arch backwards and slightly inwards. And wings, too. Red wings that rustle when Dave moves, a ttransfixing pattern spiraling over them, reminding Karkat of the cogs of a clock. Dave stares back at Karkat, taking in his narrow but round face, the curly black hair spilling over his rounded off ears and tan forehead. His eyes are chocolate brown, but in the dim lighting they look black on white.

For a long moment they just sit there staring at each other in silence. They are both shocked into quiet stillness, the silence ringing in their ears. Eventually the glowworm mewls and Karkat lowers it. His limbs no longer feel like they are stuffed with cotton, but now feel more like they are made from jello. He reaches out for the corner of machinery and uses it to haul himself to his feet. He stands on wobbly legs and manages not to fall right back down. He feels off balance, everything in his body is too light, and everything around him is too dark.

For Dave it it the opposite. He struggles to get his feet under him, feeling bulky and weighted. He flutters his wings, but they only off-balance him more, so he wills them away; with nary a twinge they go, dissolving into air. Nothing looks... bright exactly but it's all outlined clearly in his vision. His shades pinch his broadened nose so he takes them off, hanging them from the front of his shirt instead. He blinks, his eyes black pupils on grey irises on yellow sclerae. He runs his tongue over his teeth, not used to the way they fit in his mouth. "What are we going to do?" he asks, his voice coming out low and growly. He tries to clear his throat and ends up coughing. He feels two sets of vibrations in his throat when he hacks. Do trolls have _two_ sets of vocal chords?

"I don't know," Karkat says helplessly, his voice small and tangled, like he's trying to make sounds that aren't humanly possible. "Let's just... Fucking..... Get out of here."

So the two of them clutch at each other, half limping, half dragging over to the transportalizer. They go to Dave's room, because it's closer, and both fall asleep on the bed without much thought. They both hope that it's nothing but a messed up dream, and think nothing of it when they curl into each other, sore limbs and shock-addled brains pulling them into sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Dave wakes, he hardly remembers what happened. The only thing he knows is the aching of his body and the burning desire to piss. He rolls off of his bed and staggers to the bathroom, barely opening his eyes. He gets his pants down quickly, and lifts the toilet seat... and that's when he realises something's wrong.

Dave _screams._

The scream startles Karkat awake, and he scrambles off the bed only to fall flat on his ass. He staggers to his feet only to see Dave emerge from the bathroom, red from his neck to his forehead. Seeing Dave with grey skin and horns offsets Karkat a little, but then he remembers what happened. He blanches a little, but straightens up. "What's going on?" he demands.

Dave shakes his head mutely, and sags against the bathroom's doorframe. Karkat moves carefully towards him, and steps delicately and off-balance around him in order to get into the bathroom. Karkat stands in front of the mirror and stares at himself. He stares at the chocolate coloured eyes, the thick dark eyebrows, the light brown of his skin. He runs his hand through his hair, and where his fingers expect to meet horns they slide effortlessly through locks of soft black hair instead. Karkat turns his head from side to side, touching his nose, his jaw, his ears. He pulls back his lips and appraises his teeth. "Christ," he breathes out. "This is really real. This... actually happened."

Dave appears in the mirror behind him, and Karkat moves over some, making room at the sink. "I know what you mean," Dave murmurs as he does almost the same, touches the planes of his face, slides his fingers up over the bridge of his nose and over the curve of his brow. He smooths his palm up over his horns and makes a face at the tingle it sends down his spine. He can't get over how different he looks. The two of them stand there looking at themselves and each other in the mirror, bursting with questions but unsure how to ask or answer them.

"Karkat," Dave finally says after what seems like forever.

"Hmm?"

"How the fuck do you guys piss?"

For some reason, Karkat finds this horrifically amusing, and bursts into laughter. It sounds terrible, uncontrolled bursts of breathy noises. He leans on the sink and puts his face in his hands, and laughs until there are tears streaking his face. His shoulders shake and sound no longer comes out of his mouth, and Dave stands there uncomfortably, still needing to pee. His own face holds the ghost of a smile, but it's more confused than anything else.

"Holy shit Strider. Holy motherfucking shit." Karkat gasps, and leans on the sink, breaths short and fast.

"Holy shit yourself! What the fuck was that?" Dave tries to wrangle in his voice, not used to the extra vocal chamber's presence. He succeeds in not sounding like a rusty chainsaw but fails at sounding like his usual self.

"This whole thing is just... It's so fucked up." Karkat stares down at his human fingers gripping the edge of the sink.

"Yeah, an' I agree with you on that. I really do. But this situation being fucked up doesn't make my bladder any less empty." Dave's voice pitches up into a whine and his face turns ruddy again. Karkat looks over his shoulder at Dave and gazes at him like he's a lost cause.

"Dave, you are hopeless, I fucking swear." Karkat sighs and gestures at the toilet, his eartips turning red. "You just. Go. Sit down and have at it. It's not like you need to concentrate very hard to fucking piss, it's a natural bodily function. Just let your fucking body do its thing." With that, Karkat sweeps out of the bathroom, overshooting where he's going for and crashing into the doorframe with a loud _"Fuckshit!"_ before actually making it back to the bed, leaving Dave to do his thing.

Although, Karkat can't help but wonder. Is it really so different that Dave has no idea how it works? He's seen Dave's crude drawings, but there was no way a human "dick" actually looks like that. Right? Glancing around - even though the room is quite empty and Dave has shut and locked the bathroom door - Karkat hesitantly takes hold of the waistband of his pants and pulls out. He can't help but grimace. Fucking hell; it looks weird as shit. He lets his waistband snap back into place and he sprawls out on the bed, facedown in the pillows. He has the feeling it's going to be a long day.

When the toilet flushes and Dave opens the bathroom, he has some kind of semblance of his cool back in order. His shades still don't sit properly on his nose, so he leaves them in the bathroom on the sink; but the deadpan look has been coaxed back onto his face. He goes and sits on the bed beside Karkat, staring at his hands. He has washed away the remaining blood from the night before, and going down the sink it had looked more brown than red.

"What are we going to tell the girls?" Dave says, his voice quiet and strained.

Karkat's reply is muffled by the pillows, but it sounds like something along the lines of: _"Fuck me if I know."_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Terezi is nostifited (get it. nose. nostified. hahahaimsolame) of the boys' situation; Karkat and Dave douke it out on the roof; and Dave has some conflicted emotions. I will admit, a lot of this chapter is mostly filler :/ the next chapter will have some pale DaveRose because I'm a terrible person haha but also probably Davekat and THAT'S WHAT WE'RE ALL REALLY HERE FOR AMIRIGHT.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Illustrations from deer-dearest to come!! Lyric is the best <33

Sitting in silence, Dave wonders. Thoughts whirl in his head, emotions that he can't comprehend. He wants to know about the body that he has, like what the fuck is in his pants. Part of him wants to make Karkat leave, so that he can do some exploring, but part of him kind of wants to keep Karkat around to explain stuff.

"I think," Karkat says quietly, turning onto his side to better speak clearly. "That we should go back to that room. Find out if this is at all reversible."

Dave looks over at Karkat, and nods, wondering why he didn't think of that. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." He opens his sylladex, to look for the map, but to his horror it isn't there. He closes his sylladex and buries his face in his hands, groaning.

"Dave? What's the matter?" Karkat says, equal parts annoyed and concerned.

"Fucking hell. With all the shit that went down last night, I must've forgotten to pick up the map. How the fuck will we find the room again?" Dave scrapes his claws down his face, the pricking pain oddly reassuring.

Karkat groans and flops back on the bed, making the mattress bounce slightly with the force. Their map had been roughly half done, and trying to re-create it accurately from memory would be near impossible. The twists and turns and transportalizers of the meteor are complicated, and even just trying to get back to where they left off would probably end with them completely lost. After another minute of wallowing in the hopelessness of the situation, Karkat heaves out a breath and rolls upright.

"Well, it's no fucking use sitting here moping like wrigglers. I don't know about you, but I need some sustenance, fucking stat." Karkat says, prodding at Dave's shoulder.

"Okay, yeah I could go for that. But I really don't feel like having to explain all this shit to Rose or Terezi or Kanaya, so how do you feel about a little sneaking around?" Dave says. He stands and stretches, his joints still a bit sore, but more manageable this time.

"As long as it puts food in my belly." Karkat shrugs and drags himself to his feet as well, getting an eyeful of Dave. He doesn't look half-bad as a troll. Wide, sloping shoulders; strong arms. He looks less like a skinny-ass stick covered in flesh and irony and more like something that could cause damage. Something with power, a force to be reckoned with.

Karkat banishes this thought process immediately and swallows hard. He'd growl at himself if he still had the capacity.

The two of them leave Dave's room and head for the lab they had repurposed as their kitchen; hopefully no one would be in there. But unfortunately, as soon as they transportalize into the room, Terezi looks up from pouring a bowl of Alternian cereal, her nose twitching like crazy.

"Dave? Karkat? Wow! You both smell so different." She abandons her breakfast and scuttles over to the boys, who exchanged glances. "What even happened to you guys? Fuck! Dave, you smell like charcoal and candy corn. Wait are you a troll?!" She starts sniffing again, so much and so hard that she may be at risk of giving herself a hernia. A sniffing hernia.

"Yeah, that... sure is a thing. I can explain though-" Dave begins, only for Terezi to cut him off.

"Karkat! Oh-ho! MM, you smell like caramel and chocolate and- I don't even care how it happened! You two are a buffet for my senses!" Terezi grins and licks a wide stripe up Karkat's face, though he quickly pushes her off and makes a disgusted face.

After darting around them sniffing and licking while they try to get to the fridge for a bit, she lays off a little, grinning and returning to her cereal. "Now that my taste has been sated, I am extremely curious as to how this occurred. Dave, would you please present your opening statement to the jury?"

"Aight well now that you're done with your nosegasm I guess I can explain." Dave rolls his eyes and Karkat does as well, making to open the fridge as Dave starts his story.

"Karkat and I were exploring the labs and there was a mishap with a machine," he says simply, hitching up a shoulder in a half-shrug. "We want to go back to that room and see if we can fix it but I fucked up and lost our map." He casts a glance to Karkat, who is grabbing leftovers.

"That's right. This is all Dave's fault. He pushed me into the thing, and then forgot the map. I blame him completely and totally." Karkat turns up his nose, grabbing bowls from the cupboard and captchaloguing them along with the leftovers. He also snatches Terezi's box of cereal.

"Dude that is so fucking unfair. It was an accident, completely and totally." Uncharacteristic anger flares through Dave, and he bares his teeth, hands clenching into fists at his side. It feels different than the anger he's used to, it boils his skin and provides a surprisingly titillating sensation. For a moment Karkat's expression falters, but then he sneers.

"Control yourself, Dave."

The sharpness in the words make Dave realise what he's doing. Terezi's eyebrows make like they wish to crawl into her hairline, and her mouth makes a small "o" shape.

Dave crosses his arms and leans his head back - he was unconsciously tipping his head forward to threaten Karkat with his horns. His snarl is replaced with a firm, deadpan line.

Terezi smiles, but it looks more predatory than comforting. "Do you need someone to pap you, Dave?" she says, wiggling her eyebrows. Karkat makes a grossed-out noise.

"The implications of that are astoundingly fucking disgusting." Karkat tells her, his face shrunching up, lips curled and eyebrows pushed together. Dave finds it to be humorous and more than a bit adorable.

Karkat isn't sure if Terezi was suggesting she pap Dave, or that he should. Both are mental images that he absolutely does not want.

Dave doesn't really understand what Terezi means by 'pap', but he feels like it has something to do with the weird platonic-love square of their quadrants. Although the way Terezi had said it and Karkat had reacted suggests to Dave that it's some kind of innuendo, which confuses him more. Meanwhile, Terezi is cackling and Karkat is making to drag Dave out of the kitchen by his arm.

"Let's just go eat," Karkat says, his voice trying to mimic the throaty growl he would have produced had he been back in his troll body.

Dave clicks in amusement, which makes him want to laugh because he never thought that he would ever make a noise like an amused click, but he is steadily realising that he needs to stop being surprised by this kind of thing. It strikes him then just how little he knows of trolls.

This time Karkat heads towards his wing of the meteor, letting go of Dave's arm once they're safely out of the kitchen.

"So, how exactly am I going to eat without massacring my tongue and shit?" Dave asks, before running his tongue over his fangs. They bite slightly into his lip, although the skin of his lip hasn't split yet. He worries that it might soon, especially if he has to chew, but of course he isn't going to voice his concern- not without masking it.

"You put the food in your mouth, and then you chew without biting your tongue," Karkat says, as if it was obvious. "The real question: are these nubby, square-ass teeth even capable of chewing anything other than bread?"

"My sources say yes," says Dave in a mocking tone, pushing a button that causes a metal panel to sweep up, revealing Karkat's room. Both boys enter, and take a seat at the desk Karkat has tucked in the corner. The room has minimal furnishings, a shelf full of books and movies alike, a tiny couch, a bed that looks like it hasn't been slept in, and a pile of blankets, pillows, and other artifacts of a plush persuasion tucked up against the bed. Dave suspects that Karkat's been sleeping there instead of actually in his bed.

With a faint pop and a smell like burnt ozone, Karkat opens his sylladex and spills the foodstuff content over the desk. Karkat only has one chair, so he's sitting in it while Dave kneels at the side of the desk (because he's actually tall enough that his head and shoulders are above the level of the desk's surface) and props his arms up on it.

The two of them eat in relative silence, portioning out the food between them. Dave finds himself drawn more to the bacon and grubflakes than to the leftover waffles.

After they finish and tidy up, Dave scratches behind his ear and it twitches involuntarily, making him scrunch up his nose at the foreign feeling. But his thoughts start churning, and he prods Karkat in the shoulder. "Hey, do you wanna strife with me?" he asks, his voice layered with the little noises common to trolls but alien to humans. At least now when he speaks he doesn't feel like he's gargling chainsaws.

"Strife with you? Do you really think now is a fucking appropriate time for a fight?" Karkat glares at him, and pushes Dave's hand away, shaking his head.

"Oh come on. If we're going to be stuck in these bodies we might as well learn how to use them." Dave argues, following Karkat as he crosses to the other side of his block, towards one of his shelves of movies.

Karkat pauses, holding the case of a troll movie with an absurdly long Alternian title in his hands. "I guess... If you put it like that it kind of makes sense," he conceds, re-shelving the movie. He looks up at Dave, a bit annoyed at how tall the troll is. Dave was always taller than Karkat, but now he seems even bigger, larger than life.

Dave cracks a tiny smile and gestures upwards. "To the roof then?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The roof of the lab building is a clear expanse of flat grey steel, and each step rings out hollowly into the endless, empty expanse of the Furthest Ring. The Green Sun pulses and glows in the distance behind them, and if Dave squints hard he can see the tiny pinprick of blue light that is Skaia. The light of The Green Sun doesn't quite reach the meteor, but instead just gives the darkness a greenish tint. Dave and Karkat strife on the roof often, ever since Dave interrupted Karkat practicing with his sickle by himself in his room and asked to join in. So in order to light the area, glowworms as well as human lanterns alchemized out of some shit of Rose's form a lighted circle, which serves as their "strife ring." Usually when they fight, the object is to push the other person out of the strife ring. They had lost more than one lantern/glowworm to the void by accidentally pushing it off the side of the building.

The two boys emerge onto the roof, and head for the strife ring. Dave sets himself into a loose stance (feet spread elbows out loose wrists; just like Bro taught him) and pulls his sword from his specibus. Immediately it feels wrong. It feels too light, his hands don't sit comfortably in the spots they usually do. It's too easy to hold them, the weapon fits incredibly well in his hand; just not the way he's used to it being.

Karkat faces Dave, and brings out his own twin sickles. They're the same weapons he's been using since SGRUB, but they feel different in his hands. Their weight doesn't sit in his elbows anymore, but more in his wrists and shoulders. He adjusts the way he's standing to accommodate, and it lifts the slight awkwardness out of him. He stares Dave down, determination written in bold over his face, eyebrows beetling together and mouth set in a firm line.

"You have the first move, Strider," Karkat says, shifting from foot to foot. He looks twitchy in comparison to Dave, who stands completely still.

"Feeling generous today, Karkles?" Dave teases, raising his Snoop Dogg Snow cone Machete into a more battle-ready position.

Karkat doesn't reply, instead making a grunt-like sound that he intended to be a growl. Dave grins, unable to find it not humorous, and lunges forward.

By now, Karkat is familiar with the way Dave fights. He makes quick, flitting movements and is always on the offense. The way to win is to strike before he can, and the easiest time to do so is before he can land the first hit. But both of them are slightly off-balanced, so when Dave shoots forward, he miscalculates. He takes a swipe at Karkat with his sword, and Karkat jumps to the side, at least seven inches between him and Dave's blade.

Dave expresses his annoyance with an irritated chitter, and moves to strike again, as Karkat knew he would. Karkat blocks, crossing his sickles in front of his chest. Dave's sword glances off, and both boys are unscathed. Dave takes a couple steps back, swaying on the spot and moving his wrists and circles, trying to rebalance the sword. Karkat takes the opportunity to swipe at him, but new body or not, Dave is still incredibly fast. He twitches to the side, and Karkat skids on the floor as he tries to turn at the last second and fails.

The two of them lock eyes for a second, Karkat leaning his arm on his knee, his back hunched. Then he launches himself at Dave again, and the sound of metal on metal rings out into the empty vastness of the Iniphisphere.

~~~

After clashing again and again, repeatedly shoving each other and trying to force the other outside the circle, Dave finally manages to get Karkat out. Karkat's arms flail in circles because of the way Dave had knocked him off balance, and Dave takes advantage of his stumble to bodycheck Karkat , his shoulder connecting with the human's chest. Karkat wheezes and goes down, his butt landing outside of the strife circle.

Damp hair clings to sticky foreheads, and parted lips send and receive huffy breaths of impatient air. Dave stands above Karkat, his sword still in hand. One of Karkat's sickles is laying - abandoned after being forced out of his hands by a well aimed blow - in the strife ring, while the other is still in his pale-knuckled grip. Both of their chests heave with exertion, and after a few seconds, Karkat drops his eyes.

"Got me," he says, his specibus reclaiming his sickle as he pulls himself to his feet.

Dave wipes his forehead with the back of his hand, his forearm bumping the front of his horns. "Yeah," he says, a rumbling undertone threading through the word. "Sure did."

While they fought, Dave had experienced a strange sense of exhilaration. It was like live wires had been strung through his veins, pulsing with the desire to _fight_ to _win_ to **_kill_**.

As soon as Karkat started to move, he felt that surge up again and he fought the urge to growl _"stay down."_ That would have been weird. Instead he quickly fucks off, crossing the other side of the circle. But Karkat doesn't miss the way Dave's hands shake slightly.

"...Dave?" he says tentatively, brow creased with worry as he stands and moves to retrieve his sickle. "Are you okay?"

Dave has his back to the human, and with a faint pop his sword dissipates, returned to his specibus. He feels the desire to keep fighting, to turn on Karkat and use his claws and teeth, to unleash a burst of pent up anger with his fists. But he also finds himself with the crippling need to be held, he wants someone to hold him and gently run their hands through his air, he wants someone to take away his anger and nervous energy and lull him to sleep with soft murmured words.

Dave's hands shake more now, and Karkat realises what must be happeneing. He doesn't want to get too close, in case Dave turns on him, but he carefully approaches from the side, making sure that Dave can see him.

"It's a lot to process."

Dave just nods.

"What are you feeling?" Karkat runs his hand through his own sweat-slicked hair, and it stands spiked where he does it.

"Like I'm going to kill the next thing that touches me," Dave intones, his voice low and rumbling with a slight growl."

Karkat nods slowly.

"...And like I'm going to die if I'm not touched." Karkat blinks, and Dave just stares straight ahead. He crosses his arms, his claws pricking indents into the fabric of his sleeves. His lips twitch, and he snarls at nothing.

Karkat sighs on his exhale. "Terezi was right," he says, making no move to get closer to or farther from Dave. "You do need a moirail."  
That is the last thing said between them for a while. They just stand there, on the edge of the roof, looking out into the endless void with the soft glow of the strife ring shining warmly on their backs.

**Author's Note:**

> Hahahaha. Fuck _me_ if I don't ever finish this. I'm a lazy unmotivated shit, so no promises on when the next chapter will come, but it will probably come. (Seeing kudos and nice comments usually boost my moral wink wink nudge nudge)


End file.
